Getting CS undergraduates to communicate effectively

Karatsolis, Andreas; Cervasato, Iliano; Harras, Khaled A.; Cooper, Yonina; Oflazer, Kemal; Abu-Ghazaleh, Nael; Sans, Thierry

doi:10.1145/1999747.1999827

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, Burge, et al, [6] found that only 37% of CS/SE undergraduate programs, out of 104 analyzed, required a stand-alone communication course and that less than 15% indicated a strong emphasis on writing skills in technical courses other than software engineering (54%) and the capstone (73%). Several CS/SE specific frameworks for incorporating communication interventions into courses and curricula have been proposed [6,8,12,17,20]. In these frameworks, assignment development utilizes situated learning, where technical tasks are framed within audience-driven workplace scenarios [2,17,20].…”

Section: Researchersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The generally low state of a college graduate's workplace communication abilities is attributed to many causes. Faculty say that they do not have the training to provide writing instruction in their classes [20,23]. They add that if they take class time to explain and demonstrate professional communication, they will be placing their students at a disadvantage by spending less time on essential technical content [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

CS/SE Instructors Can Improve Student Writing without Reducing Class Time Devoted to Technical Content: Experimental Results

Anderson¹,

Heckman²,

Vouk³

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Computer Science and Software Engineering (CS/SE) profession reports that new college graduates lack the communication skills needed for personal and organizational success. Many CS/SE faculty may omit communication instruction from their courses because they do not want to reduce technical content. We experimented in a software-engineeringintensive second-semester programming course with strategies for improving students' writing of black box test plans that included no instruction on writing the plans beyond the standard lecture on testing. The treatment version of the course used 1) a modified assignment that focused on the plan's readers; 2) a model plan students could consult online; and 3) a modified grading rubric that identified the readers' needs. Three external raters found that students in the treatment sections outperformed students in the control sections on writing for five of nine criteria on rubrics for evaluating the plans and on the raters' holistic impression of the students' technical and communication abilities from the perspectives of a manager and a tester. Index Terms-communication across the curriculum, software engineering education, black box test plans.

show abstract

Section: Researchersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CS/SE Instructors Can Improve Student Writing without Reducing Class Time Devoted to Technical Content: Experimental Results

Anderson¹,

Heckman²,

Vouk³

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Cilliers [4] and Weikle [21] provide sample assignments for particular CS courses. Etlinger [8], Falkner and Falkner [9], and Karatsolis et al [14] describe frameworks for designing communication components for any course. To bring communication instruction closer to the technical work in CS, some programs have replaced required technical communication courses taught by another department (often English) with similar courses designed specifically for their students [13,15].…”

Section: Comparing Workplace and Academic Learning Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is general agreement in the literature that computer science (CS) graduates must be effective communicators to meet the needs of their employers and become successful professionals [4,8,9,12,14,15,18]. The literature also reveals that the profession finds most new CS graduates to be deficient in their communication skills [8,9,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workplace scenarios to integrate communication skills and content

Hoffman

Anderson

Gustafsson

2014

Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A recent study of new software developers at Microsoft reveals the significance and integration of communication skills in their daily tasks. While the literature offers a variety of approaches to promote the integration of communication skills into the Computer Science curriculum, a discrepancy remains between what students get and what they need. In this paper, we propose using workplace scenarios that integrate communication skills with technical content situated in and mediating workplace activity. Workplace scenarios are based on an analysis of the workplace as an activity system. Guidelines for implementing workplace scenarios are provided. A case study analyzes the integration of communication skills with technical content using workplace scenarios in a software development course.

show abstract

“…They explain that this approach gives students more technical practice. [20] This practice allows students to simulate what types of writing and communication scenarios they could encounter in the field. The authors observed that students are less reluctant to write after taking the courses.…”

Section: Carnegie Mellon University Qatar Campusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Showing Programmers that they Already Know How to Write Well

Buss¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Showing Programmers that They Already Know How to Write Well Alanna BussBeing able to communicate effectively through writing is an important skill for computer scientists and software engineers. In addition to being able to write code, programmers need to write clearly and concisely for everything from comments in their code to documentation. Despite writing being essential to their future careers, many programming students from Cal Poly find writing to be unimportant and many of them believe that they are not capable of writing good papers. How can Cal Poly help these students?This paper describes a pedagogy to help students improve their writing skills. It is based heavily on the belief that programmers already possess many of the skills necessary to be good writers. The pedagogy hopes to show students how to utilize the skills from writing code in their paper writing. This paper answers the question "Can transferring programming knowledge to writing help improve student confidence or writing ability?". Results from the study show that the pedagogy can be associated with an improvement in students' confidence in their ability to write logical, well-organized papers. It also show that the pedagogy can be associated with students being able to split their paragraphs into single topics more effectively.iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to:• Leanne Fiorentino for always being there for me and all of the computer science department. I genuinely could not have done it without you.• Michael Williams for always putting up with me and my antics.• My sister Jessica for saving the day with her stats knowledge and help.• Foaad Khosmood for literally saving the day with his help and support at the end of this process.

show abstract

Getting CS undergraduates to communicate effectively

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

CS/SE Instructors Can Improve Student Writing without Reducing Class Time Devoted to Technical Content: Experimental Results

CS/SE Instructors Can Improve Student Writing without Reducing Class Time Devoted to Technical Content: Experimental Results

Workplace scenarios to integrate communication skills and content

Showing Programmers that they Already Know How to Write Well

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About